Unit 11

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY DEPARTMENT
Teacher: Maite Fresnillo

UNIT 11. URBANISM

1. Introduction

The concept of city varies from country to country. In Spain, taking into account the
quantitative aspect, a city is a human establishment of at least 10,000 inhabitants.
Other criteria are related to developed activities and, in this case, in a city secondary
and tertiary sectors are dominant.

2. Urban morphology

The morphology of a city can be analysed in its plan. It is difficult to find cities
completely homogeneous and, the most common, is the combination of different
kinds of plans.

In general, in the Iberian Peninsula there are four main plans:
- Orthogonal: the streets are straight and they
cross forming squares. It answers to a
previous plan. It was used by the Romans,
following the structure of their camps and
then some examples were found in the
Middle Age but it was mainly during the
second half of 19th century and first half of
20th century when it was used to build the
enlargements of the cities (Barcelona or San
Sebastian enlargements).
- Irregular: Streets are narrow, difficult to move
and to orientate. It normally appears in areas
where there was not a previous plan. Muslim cities use this plan and in
them the streets are directed to the mosque (Cordoba, Toledo).
- Radio-central: Streets develop as radius and streets are organised
concentrically. It is common in historical areas of some cities, as in the case
of Vitoria.
- Lineal: It follows a route in a city. There are examples such as Lineal City in
Madrid, the district designed by Arturo Soria, or other towns such as
Anzuola.

With time cities have evolved and nowadays it is pretty common to find situations in
which cities have become a continuous or are linked with other areas. The resultant
formations have the following characteristics:
- Metropolitan district: The term was coined in the US to name areas of more
than 200,000 inhabitants, all of them under the influence of only one city.
Nowadays the concept is different and it only refers to areas with a certain
structure and some characteristics such as big size and complex functions,

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commuting workers, architectonical continuity, and a developed transport
system.
- Conurbation: This phenomenon happens when two cities, in their
development, finished by forming a continuous one, this is, for instance, the
case of Eibar-Ermua.
- Urban agglomeration: there are cities linked due to economy and trade but
each of them keeps its own administrative structure.

3. Urbanization process

Urbanization word refers to the process of populating an area, preparing services such
as water supply, lighting, sewage system and streets. In fact urbanization process is
more complex because it consists of changing a natural environment into an urban one
and this brings associated a deep change in demography, economy and social and
cultural changes. Urbanization is directly linked to a huge population, with abundant
settlements, industries and tertiarization.

Spain, with near of the 80 per cent of its population living in cities, is one of the most
urbanized countries in Europe. These cities are the result of a long process that has
determined the spatial distribution and, at the same time, has left tracks in the present
space, where different urban models have superimposed.

Urbanization process is the progressive concentration in the city of population and
economic activities. This process has been conformed along the time with a
superimposition of different organization models and use of territory, but it is
essentially result of industrial development. Between 1960 and 1974 huge groups of
people left the countryside to move to industrial and tertiary nucleus.

In order to understand better the changes that occurred in Spanish cities there are
three different periods: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial or services’ city.

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Pre-industrial city

It is the historical city which vestiges can be seen in the plan. It covers the period from
the apparition of cities to the development of industry in the 19 th century. During this
period urbanization was limited. There are several periods that can be distinguished:
- Coastal location of the first colonisers, Greek and Phoenician.
- Roman city: they follow the orthogonal plan of the Roman military camps,
with two main streets: cardum (N-S) and decumanus (E-W). They count with
sewage systems and water supplies. Their decadence began in the Middle
Age. Examples of this plan can be found in Zaragoza, Barcelona and Merida.
- During the High Middle Age a majority of the population lived in towns but
cities recovered in the Low Middle Age, a period in which different cultures
(Christian and muslin) lived together. In both cases urban spaces were
separated from rural spaces by a wall and the plan was no planned. In
general there were closed spaces lacking of hygiene with people
agglomeration and streets organised depending on the guilds. Around the
pilgrimage routes appeared lineal cities, such as Santo Domingo de la
Calzada, Estella, Logroño.

- Renaissance: Some theories about urbanization developed and there was a
certain planning, concentrated mainly in defence, as can be seen in
Pamplona, with a fortified area.
- Baroque: Sometimes cities developed even out of their walls. Squares,
gardens, promenades and even new neighbourhoods were built (Madrid,
Palencia, Caceres). It can be said that in this moment began the real
urbanization.
- Neo-Classicism: With Illustration ideas about urban improvement appeared.
Public buildings were built such as council houses, universities, hospitals
and museums. In addition to this, some regions were re-populated as it
happened in Sierra Morena with La Carolina or La Granja in Segovia. In both
cases the construction was planned.

The model of pre-industrial city is a reduced space, separated from the surrounding
rural area by a protective wall, with narrow streets, irregular distribution and houses of

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one or two floors over which appear churches and palaces. A majority of the
population worked in the land but craft industry and commerce are important
activities, at once with religious and administrative functions. Houses, workshops,
shops and market were mixed together, without differences between residence and
working places.

Industrial city

From the late 19th century and on, cities
suffered important modifications in their
functions (industrial and services), their
demographic and spatial dimensions and urban
landscape.

The causes of the transformations were socio-
economic –creation of industries that attracted
the rural population surplus and development
of bourgeoisie- and administrative –the new
provincial division of Spain in 1933 provoked
the development of the cities chosen as capitals.

Two periods can be distinguished:

3.2.1. Urban transition (until the 60s of the 20th century)

During this period demographic concentration in cities was small: less than 50 per
cent, The initial industrialization affected few cities and the urban development was
not homogeneous, but polarised: cities based on industry, such as those of Catalonia,
Cantabric region and Madrid, developed quickly while provincial capitals developed
slowly, increasing their tertiary activities.

The difference between city and countryside became more evident with the
development of industrial process. One of the main factors of this difference was the
means of transport that demanded new infrastructures.

Industrial revolution implied deep changed in cities due to industrial localization and
also to the amount of people attracted to work on it.

Industrial revolution provoked a dramatic increase of population that resulted in the
need for urban planning. Enlargements were projected and that required the
destruction of the medieval walls. Two were the main characteristics of the
enlargements: regular urban-drafting to simplify the movements and housing
organization.

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In the place previously occupied by the walls ring roads appeared and they were
known as ronda. The building of houses developed too and this supposed a
democratization of the space, mainly since lifts were included, putting an end to the
social differences in some buildings.

Among the most famous urban
enlargements are those of Barcelona
(Cerda, 1860), Madrid (Castro, 1860),
San Sebastian (Cortazar, 1863-64) and
Vitoria (1864). Later San Sebastian’s
second enlargement, Bilbao, Pamplona,
Valencia, Zaragoza followed. The aim of
these enlargements was to solve the
housing problem and they became the
living place of middle classes.

The increase of urban population and the development of the means of transport, at
once with a desire of solving the problems of the enlargements led to the creation of
other neighbourhoods, most of them without enough planning. Normally the houses in
them were of poor quality and they were adapted to communications (areas near
stations). This is evident in the cases of Madrid and Barcelona.

One project that tried to be functional and environmentally friendly was lineal-city
designed by Arturo Soria in Madrid. In this project there were grounds in which only a
50 per cent could be built. The houses were familiar and they were distributed along
the railway making easy the movement by using public transport. This project was
considered utopian.

The main urban development saw light during the 20 th century. Until Civil War the
Enlargement Laws and Reform Laws regulated the process. In 1939 the State’s Housing
Institute was created with the aim of building cheap houses and to direct regional
plans, provincial plans and later general plans.

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Only after 1956 Land Regime and Urban Organization Law were elaborated. One year
later the Housing Minister appeared. Despite the official urban planning, the huge
movement of population resulted in the apparition of shanty towns and irregular
development.

3.2.2. Urban development period (1960-1975): development.

Industrial intensification and demographic changes provoked by the former (rural
exodus, at once with the baby boom), resulted in intensive urbanization and urban
population evolved from 14.5 millions to near 23 millions.

This quick development and the adoption of the development model in which the
target was the increase of production strengthened territorial disequilibrium. In this
way the “Y” formed by Basque Country, Navarre, Saragossa, coastal Catalan provinces,
Valencia and Murcia, over passed in urban development the national media, while in
the interior, but for Madrid and Valladolid, there is an evident delay.

Other factor that influenced the irregular
urban development was tourism because
during the autarchy times cities were
developed without a previous planning.
This phenomenon affected mainly the
Mediterranean Coast and the islands.

Along this period urban surface widened
at the same time that a deep
transformation took place in their
interior. The development of cities
resulted in the creation of new neighbourhoods in the periphery of the cities, in a
discontinuous way around the space built during the previous periods. Industrial areas
developed as well.

3.3. Post-industrial city

The 1973 crisis influenced in urbanization too, what in addition to a new Soil Law
brought changes in urbanization giving priority to quality instead of quantity: prepare
infrastructures, reduce building density, care about life-quality and environment.

In the 1980s urbanism was in the hands of the autonomous communities. This
supposed that the plans, instead of being just for a city, became for an area or even
more general. In the 1990s cities became centres of services, eliminating industries or
re-conditioning spaces before occupied by them in order to modernize the cities.

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The changes of this period are:
a) Slow down of the urban development due to the migratory movement: rural
exodus due to the economic crisis of traditional industrial sectors and the
scarce vegetative development resulting from the low birth rate.
b) The spatial polarization slowed down too although the North East continues
being the most urbanised with the island and Western Andalusia. The
development of the biggest industries is reduced in favour of the medium and
small, as a result of the saturation of big cities and the trend to decentralization
of economic activities.
c) From the point of view of the development method, new metropolitan areas
and conurbations appeared and the already existing expanded at the same
time that a new urban region appeared in the Mediterranean corridor.
d) Cities surface expanded along the communications routes without a real
demographic expansion of cities.
e) Since the end of the seventies there
is a higher sensitivity in relation to
life quality and revalorization of
environment. The new democratic
councils started developing
strategies for urban planning in
order to assure the quality of urban
development (services, green areas).

4. Urban functions

Urban functions are the reason of being for some cities. In some cases, the creation of
one city answered to a certain purpose. There is a direct link between the size of a city
and the function or functions dominant in it.

Some of the main urban functions are:
- Commercial: it is one of the most specific of cities. In Spain it was the
reason for the creation of a good number of cities.
- Residential: population is divided in neighbourhoods depending on their
economy, social or cultural level.
- Industrial: the first industrial cities were erected near mines or
communications. Nowadays industries are located in special industrial
areas.
- Political and administrative: it belongs to capital cities that become
management centres and also location for communication and finance
companies.
- University and cultural: apart from having universities they count with other
cultural services such as museums, investigation centres, different
specialised schools.
- Other functions: touristy, therapy, military, religious.

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5. Use of soil and structure of urban functions

Urban functions are the result of a dynamic process and each of these functions
requires a location or certain characteristics. In a city there are normally some
functions that always appear, with their own particularities:
- Trade and business area: normally located in the city centre
- Residential: in the centre or areas around, depending on the prices
- Industrial areas: frequently in the outside of the city but sometimes there
are houses, commercial or spare time centres, cultural, health, and others.

Commerce and business

These functions can be found in all the areas of the city but mainly in the Central
Business District (CBD), frequently in the enlargement of the cities.

Historical centres were progressively left apart when enlargements were developed
and these became the living space for accommodate classes.

The main problems of the historical centres were:
- Over tertiarization: banks, insurance companies, public institutions and
other services were concentrated at once with bars, restaurants which need
accessibility.
- Evident environmental deterioration, with parking and traffic problems.
- Double social situation: when enlargements were built bourgeoisie left this
part of the city that has became or a neighbourhood for people with few
resources or the living place of the highest rents.

In the CBD trade and finance are the main activity, with a lot of banks, offices and
services. This part of the cities tends to be the most expensive, counts with all the
services and it is located close to the historical area. Activity changes completely from
day to night in this neighbourhood.

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Residential function

It is spread in the entire city even when
there are places with a higher
concentration of houses. In some cases
neighbourhoods are referred as sleeping
towns because people are out of their
homes during the day and they only
return after ending their labour time.

These neighbourhoods may vary
depending on the buying capacity of
citizens and we can find neighbourhoods of detached houses or traditional working
class suburbs.

Industrial function

Its best location is near communications, in areas where soil is cheaper.

We can analyse the uses of soil in the cases of Bilbao and San Sebastia.

There are four units in Bilbao:
. Centre: historical area and enlargement, it is the CBD, Gran Via inguruan.
· Urban interior: it is difficult to separate it from the city centre. In this trade,
communications, stores and some small industries combine. It is the area of Recalde,
San Francisco, Santutxu, Deusto and San Ignacio.
· Urban exterior: left margin of the river, from Zorroza to Santurce, the right
margin: Lejona, Getxo and the South: Basauri, Etxebarri, Galdacano and Arrigorriaga.
· Area in urban transformation: it has several functions and it is not completely
integrated in Bilbao: mines region, Asua, Cadagua and Nervion and Ibaizabal basins.

In San Sebastian there are two main areas:
· CBD, in the area of Freedom Avenue and, in general, the enlargement.
· Complementary area, taking Old Part, Old and New Amara, Gros, Antiguo, and
Ayete-Miraconcha.

Apart from these two sector there are other neighbourhoods such as Inchaurrondo,
Roteta, Alza, Herrera, Loyola, Martutene, and towns that live under San Sebastian’s
influence, as the cases of Pasajes, Lezo, Renteria, Oyarzun, Hernani, Urnieta, Lasarte,
Zubieta, Astigarraga and Usurbil.

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6. Internal structure of Spanish cities

Each period has added different contributions to urban development but there are the
changes of the end of the 50s those that have resulted in the creation of different
zones in the cities. The present nucleuses are configured as a different space with wide
areas that form a real puzzle. This sector organization is known as urban structure, in
which several units can be distinguish depending on the morphology (plan and
building), uses and economic activities, and their socio-demographic composition.
When analysing the morphology and structure of the urban nucleus it is required to
combine the spatial approach (articulation of the regions from the centre to the
periphery) with its historical evolution. In this way we can distinguish the following
areas:
- Historical areas with:
o Old quarter or historical centre
o Expansion areas and outskirts (working class, garden-city, first
industrial areas)
- Urban periphery
- Outlying area

6.1. Old quarter (the inherited city)

This old part is the pre-industrial part of the city. It is the result of a long history started
in the roman or medieval times. Historical quarters keep more or less the remains of
the past: closed distribution, irregular plans, narrow streets, cultural heritage.

Although nowadays they represent only an small part of the urbanised space, they are
of huge symbolic value –it is the image of the city for the exterior because they
maintain remains of the past and traditions –and functional because they concentrate
some administrative functions, business and commerce.

During the 19th century and the first half of the 20 th these areas had to adapt to the
new demand of the bourgeoisie:

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- Part of the areas is devoted to
bourgeoisie residences. The
traditional street distribution
change and big streets and
squares substitute the old
houses with more comfortable
ones developed in height. On
the other hand, empty spaces
inside the walls are filled with
administrative buildings and
bourgeoisie’s houses, in
addition to the convents that
were common in this part of
the city.
- Other part decays and they became the residence of workers with low
purchasing power, each time more crowded at the same time that buildings
deteriorate physically.

In the years of development there is a renovation or remodelling of historical areas as
a result of the attractive of these areas for specialised tertiary activities, to a large
extent linked to their good accessibility from the rest of the city.
The renovation implies:
- Substitution of the old urban design modifying the street stroke and
building new houses, with an increase of the building intensity and
development in height and volume, with a morphology having little to see
with the previous one. These alterations damaged the historical-artistic
heritage.
- Substitution of traditional uses –expelling secondary and residential
activity- for quality shops and specialised services.
- Traditional population shift (old and with low rents) substituted by newer
ones with higher purchasing power.

These transformations determined the appearance of a series of environmental and
social problems in the old quarter:
a) Excessive specialization in tertiary functions. Advances services, commerce,
spare time, hotels and restaurants concentrate. There are activities that
require accessibility and the prestige of these neighbourhoods. In big cities the
business centre has been moved to the expansion area or the big avenues out
of the historical centre. In the rest old quarter and commercial centre are
identified.
b) Environmental quality deterioration. The abandon of the residential uses
favour the intensification of movements residence-work place, with traffic
saturation in the rush hour and at shopping time, and the parking problems. At
the same time, the scarce presence of residents is translated in a lack of

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vicinity life: street and square are not a place for relation but for traffic or
movement.
c) Social dualism. In the inside of the historical area there is a contrast between
areas of high quality for accommodate social groups and others of low quality
occupied by elderly and marginal population (immigrants).

Due to all these reasons since the 80s
rehabilitation has been seen as the new
alternative. Its aim is to keep urban heritage
but with its social and even economic
content. However, and with the exception
of some cities such as Vitoria, the
rehabilitation policy has been centred in
architectonical interventions (façades, while
the interior of houses have been completely
renewed), and infrastructural (pedestrian streets, recovery of public spaces such as
squares, museums, cultural centres, civic centres), expelling the old residents –
substituted by groups of higher income- and the former activities. As a result it has
been a chance for real-state speculation and social segregation.

6.2. Transition area: bourgeois expansion and working class suburbs.

Around old town there is a heterogeneous area with huge functional, social and
morphological complexity. This area was built along the 19 th century and first decades
of the 20th: the bourgeois expansions and workers neighbourhoods, this is, garden
neighbourhoods and industrial areas. Due their proximity to central areas, this first
periphery presents a great deal of integration with the city, with closest relations to it.

6.2.1. The bourgeois expansion.

It appeared during the mid 19th century as an answer to the development of cities
following the interest of the bourgeoisie:
- order: regular plan
- health: pavement, sewage system, green spaces, water supply
- benefit: houses and shops buildings

The characteristics of these areas are:
• Regular design, in squares or radial, with wide streets. The style of the
building is eclecticism, based on the mix of different historical styles and
incorporating new materials such as iron and glass.
• The use of the soil was mainly residential at the very beginning. Only the
bourgeoisie could afford the high prices of the houses and they chose the
areas closer to the city centre or best communicated with it.

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The first expansions appeared in dynamic cities: Barcelona (Cerdá plan, 1859) and
Madrid. At the end of the 19 th century and beginning of the 20 th this model spread to
other cities: Bilbo, San Sebastian, Saragossa, Valencia, and Pamplona.

With the time the expansion was subject to modifications: the area became ticker,
with higher buildings to take advantage of the space, and the expansion area adopted
tertiary activities that expanded from the historical centre to its main street,
substituting houses with shops and offices.

6.2.2. Integration and revalorization of old suburbs.

Old suburbs appeared at the same time as bourgeois expansions as a solution to
housing problem for popular classes. Workers who emigrated to industrial cities could
not afford to live in the historical area because it was too expensive for them or
deteriorated areas had too a high occupation. Due to this they settled in marginal
neighbourhoods, out of urban limits, along roads or near industries and train stations.

The street net, characterised by a varied plan, frequently
irregular, answers to an imperfect division of the soil
realised by its owners, where low quality and small size
houses were built, in close and dense nets, without the
minimum services in the interior and without collective
equipment (water, sewage system, pavement, trade) but
with presence of factories, workshops and storeys. All this
resulted in a dirty and unhealthy environment.

Later on, during the 60s and 70s there has been a certain
transformation, total or partial, incorporating to the city:
- Nucleus with the best location that have benefited from the urban
development (substituting old houses by several stages houses, receiving
services) as in content (change of residents).
- Worse situated continue as marginal spaces, increasing their deterioration.

6.2.3. Garden city

At the same time the expansion of the cities took place in some Spanish regions a
singular area developed, not very wide, the colonies of neighbourhoods of garden city:
single-family houses, with garden and orchard, trees, and green areas. The best
example of it is Lineal City in Madrid, designed by Arturo Soria.

These neighbourhoods were occupied by middle or working classes because
bourgeoisie preferred the centre or the expansion. Only with the time this kind of
habitat became attractive for bourgeoisie: Neguri in Bilbo, Pedralbes and Bonanova in
Barcelona or Viso in Madrid.

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Survival in the city ranges from the most respectful conservation of these remains of
urban heritage (isolated little single-family houses) and their disappearance due to
speculation as in Lineal City where blocks of flats have been built.

6.2.4. Traditional industrial areas or areas of recent deindustrialization

In areas near communications factories appeared since the second half of the 19 th
century. Train stations and ports favoured the installation of factories, storeys and
deposits, mainly weighty ones, which transport was easier using those methods. In
their side appeared other uses that created scarce attractive, as abattoirs, and central
markets. Around those working class slams appeared.

During the last years it has been a deep functional and social transformation of urban
spaces:
- the loss of importance of train for transport,
- urban exhaustion,
- physical obsolescence of industries and buildings,
- crisis of traditional industries and revalorization of the soil have resulted in
an industrial empty. In the most appreciated areas it has been a
substitution of industrial use for tertiary use and old residents have leave
space to other with higher economic power.

6.3. Urban periphery

During the 50s and, even more during the 60s, demographic increase and industrial
development attracted rural population to big industrial cities. The empty spaces
between the centre and the suburbs were filled with the construction of slums,
creating a compact ring around the central area of the city.

These new peripheral urban spaces present dramatic contrasts, both functional
(residential, industrial, equipment areas) and social and morphological.

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6.3.1. Residential areas: housing states

The most characteristic morphology is the housing states. Their main characteristic is
the internal uniformity, in shape, function and structures, and the existence of
contrasts among them, reflect of the society that can be seen in different aspects:
- Initiative of housing promotion: at the beginning public organizations
developed them to leave way, in the 60s, to private initiative.
- Morphology: the houses are of great variety, from colonies of low houses
with orchards to the open building of towers or the closed blocks. These
huge housing promotions are characterised by the dense building
structure, reduced surface, low building quality and the lack of a series of
urban equipment during long times. With the time there are new
typologies of better quality, oriented to middle classes.
- Socio-demographic structure: Internally these areas are homogeneous
mainly due to the economic level of inhabitants. The residential structure
reflects the social structure of the population. Each social class tends to
occupy a region of the space, related to the price of the soil, and in this
way appears a well defined social conformation: working class
neighbourhoods, bourgeoisie, and middle classes.
- Function: it is essentially residential, with tertiary areas: shops and services
concentrated in certain parts.

Since the 80s it is more common to find filling
and consolidation operations. An important
part of urban policy is addressed to correct
the deficit accumulated in these peripheral
neighbourhoods. Infrastructures and services
have improved, public equipment has been
built and, thank to the development of
transports net and an special attention to
urbanization of open spaces, these
neighbourhoods are now integrated in a
more harmonic way.

6.3.2. Non residential spaces: industrial and equipment areas.

a) Peripheral industrial areas

The price of the soil in this periphery far from the city centre has determined its
election as the perfect place for industrial installations. There are two types:
- Industrial areas of roads: they were developed without planning along the
communications ways with the city, where soil was cheap and there were
plenty of facilities for transport. They adopt a lineal distribution.

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- Industrial areas: they are planned and urbanised spaces that count with
infrastructures such as water and energy, and they offer a regular plan.
They are located in accessible areas, near important communication roads.

b) Peripheral equipment areas

They are the result of the present decentralization of economic activities. Near the
roads at the outside of the cities huge commercial surfaces have been developed. They
count with schools, administrative buildings, hospitals or other services. It is an ideal
location for business too because the price of the soil is cheaper than in cities. Their
landscape is linked to the concentration of singular buildings of avant-guard
architecture with high environmental quality.

6.4. The exterior crown.

It expands forming a discontinuous ring around the city: it is not compact as the first
periphery and there are spaces without buildings in between the different elements. In
many cities the urban development process has absorbed several nucleus of
population of the areas around. These are nowadays part of that exterior crown. In
this we can distinguish residential unities, industries and services, some old and some
brand new.

6.4.1. Diversity of residential spaces

a) New urban morphologies

Since the 80s the exterior crown of the cities has experienced a spectacular increase
with urbanizations of low density, non continuous. Residential areas are formed by
detached o semi-detached houses. This new model has proliferated among middle
classes due to the problems of congestion, traffic, cramped spaces in city centres.
These new suburbs result in isolated neighbourhoods of open plan and individual
building.

This urban solution creates several problems: great soil consumption, intensive use of
the car, social isolationism and others.

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Due to this there are other alternatives emerging, such the recovery of the blocks,
closed or semi-closed, with urban typologies of medium density, recovering human
scale. They tend to organise around courtyards or squares that are the real centres
organising the space because they count with gardens, infantile playgrounds,
swimming pools.

6.4.2. Marginal urbanization

Shanty towns, originally created in the war
aftermath as a solution for housing of low
classes reached its peak in the 50s with the
rural exodus. These houses tend to be self-
built, with a lot of lacks, and illegally built.
They do have neither urban organization
nor public supplies (water, light, sewage).

In the 60s and 70s there was a process or
renewal of this marginal urbanization. With
the development of cities these areas were
included in them so the soil they were built
on re-valorised and the new interest led to
new construction while former inhabitants
should be relocated following campaigns to
finish with shanty towns.

Nowadays the phenomenon continues but
at a lower scales due to the economic
development and the bigger municipal
control. The only matter is that only the
most desperate situations are found in
these regions and their population is
marginal (gypsies, foreign immigrants).

6.5. The complex spaces around cities.

The expansion of built areas in cities along communications creates problems to
identify the limits of them. A peripheral space is that which without being urban it is
linked to the city due to the needs and urban demand.

The main characteristic of this space, with non defined limits, is the mix of the uses of
soil and living forms of the countryside and the city. Agrarian uses are linked to the
urban demand and in addition to these; there are residential, industrial, commercial,
and spare time uses.

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6.5.1. Residential areas

Sub-urbanization reaches to a great
development since the 70s, thanks to
productive activities, problems of
residence in central areas and activities
that combine agrarian and urban uses.

The most characteristic element of this
process is sleeping-cities. They appeared
from the near rural nucleus, where houses
are the dominant element. In the 80s and
90s the model of detached houses
expanded and this, unite to the change of the secondary house to be the principal and
the restoration of houses in towns have resulted in the apparition of these new
houses.

6.5.2. New industrial and business spaces

A majority of them are looking for higher environmental quality and they tend to be
surrounded by green areas and quality services.

The typology is varied. The most significant examples are technological parks, designed
for advanced companies and research institutes or business parks with offices in places
of quality and well communicated with commercial and spare time areas.

7. Urban-system

This concept refers to the relation between urban centres in a region. This system has
a hierarchy due to the difference in sizes and functions of the cities that determines
their relation with the regions around. In addition to this, the influence of a city may
vary depending on the services and their availability.

The indicators used to classify cities in a
hierarchy are the following:
- Level-size index: it takes into
account the size of the cities
- Clark-Evans index: it takes into
account the distribution of the
cities in the space
- Nelson index: it considers the
functions of the cities.

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The analysis is not only economic but also geographical, taking into account social and
internal relations. The analysis of a urban-system integrates different factors such as
functions and influence area.

7.1. Spain’s urban-system

In the 1990s Spain had a pyramidal urban hierarchy in which the number of cities
increased when the number of inhabitants of them was smaller. The ideal situation in a
urban-system is that the levels will be equilibrated.

In the case of Spain the analysis of the structure shows two important breaking points.
The first one is that the size reduces as soon as we move to a next level and the
reduction is huge. The second breaking point is that the distance between the second
(Barcelona) and third (Valencia) cities is enormous. Spanish system is considered to
have two heads (Madrid-Barcelona).

As long as the spatial distribution of the cities is concerned, the main characteristic is
the lack of homogeneity. The model has a ring appearance where the main cities are in
the periphery, with centre in Madrid, whereas the space in the middle is less
populated. The reason for that is that the coastal regions have more economic
functions. As a conclusion it can be said that the system is not homogeneous, with
important differences between regions. This contrast is emphasized by the size
contrast because there are 21 cities of more than 250,000 inhabitants of which only
two (Madrid and Valladolid) are in the Meseta.

Other important metropolis concentration is located in the North. There are four
spaces of economic activity linked one to the other (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and

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Valencia, linked to Zaragoza). In this region there are five out of the seven
metropolises bigger than 500,000 inhabitants.

Taking into account functions and population the following hierarchy may be
established:
- Cities with state level functions: this is the first level in the hierarchy and
there are two cities in this group: Madrid and Barcelona. Both have more
than 3 million inhabitants, they have influence all over the state, and they
are related to other metropolises in the world. There are centres of
business decision and have a diversified functional structure (trade,
industry, administration and policy, finances, culture, university) and
diversified services. In addition to this, Madrid is the capital city of the state
what makes of this an important administrative centre.
- Cities with primary influence in a region: In this group are Valencia, Sevilla,
Bilbao and Zaragoza. All of them have between 500,000 and 1,500,000
inhabitants and they have strong links with the state level metropolises.
Each of them has an important area under their influence.
- Cities with secondary influence in a region: In this third level some cities
have very specialized services but they lack of others. Their size is between
200,000 and 500,000 inhabitants and they have links with primary level
regional metropolises. Some of them are capital cities of smaller nucleus. In
this group are, for instance, Alicante, Murcia, Santander, Oviedo and
Coruña.
- Medium cities: There are provincial capitals in general, with trade and
services at provincial level: Burgos, Orense, Logroño, Segovia, Ciudad Real,
Castellon, Jaen, Algeciras and Aviles. They have between 50,000 and
200,000 inhabitants.

7.2. Basque Country’s urban-system

The present urban system of the Basque Country is
consequence of historical and economical influences. In one
hand, there are three different sectors: the coastal, the
interior and the transition area between both of them.
Historically during Middle Ages towns were created due to
defence and economy and them industrialization provoked an
important urban development.

By the 19th century there was an urban net developed. These nucleuses were small but
some of them soon started concentrating bigger amounts of people. In this moment
Vizcaya, and Guipuzcoa started their development whereas Alava was less populated,
with more traditional structures.

In the 1970s the development of coastal regions slowed down due to the economic
crisis.

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If we take into consideration the level and size of the cities in the Basque Country one
of the characteristics is their regularity. The biggest city is Bilbao, followed by Vitoria,
and San Sebastian. The rest of the cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are part of
the urban agglomerations of the provincial capital cities.

Other element to bear in mind is the location of the nucleus that is different due to
physical and historical reasons. For instance, in regions near the coast are located two
thirds of the towns and three quarters of the population while in the Mediterranean
area there are fewer inhabitants.

As long as hierarchy is concerned, a majority of the cities are under the influence of
the capital cities, with some exceptions such as the cases of Araban Rioja under the
influence of Logroño.

In general, all the territory is not integrated in only one system and there is an
important difference between coast and interior. Three of the biggest cities are on the
coast: Bilbao, and San Sebastian, the same as an important group of smaller cities.
They have industrial and services functions and mainly touristy function.

Two sub-systems can be differentiated:

-Coastal sub-system:

- Biscay: The main concentration is around Bilbao that concentrates 85 per
cent of the provincial population. It has metallurgic, chemistry, paper,
building and other industrial sectors. It also concentrates many services
such as finances, trade, assessment, companies’ direction, communications,
and leisure.
- Guipuzcoa: San Sebastian and its surroundings take the 45 per cent of the
population. Functions are varied in this region: touristy, administration,
trade. Some of them are shared with other surrounding cities, mainly
industry spotted in Hernani, Andoain, Usurbil, Oyarzun, Urnieta, Pasajes,
Lezo, Renteria. Apart from San Sebastian there are other centres in the rest
of the province with important services: Irun, Tolosa, Vergara, Zarauz, Eibar,
Beasain, Mondragon, Zumarraga, Azpeitia.

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-Interior sub-system:

- Alava: Vitoria is the finance, trade, and industry centre and the one
concentrating the majority of population. A characteristic of this region is to
be a one-headed region.

8. Social, economic and environmental urban problems

The development of urban life and, as a consequence, the over-exploitation of
environment has resulted in several problems (high densities, environmental impact,
and traffic). Anyway, cities also have positive consequences (cultural richness, social
mobility, facilities for services, leisure and job opportunities).

Socio-economic problems are more serious in cities. They
attract too many immigrants but the possibilities of having
a decent and cheap home are scarce and some
neighbourhoods have become ghettos for different
ethnical groups living in job insecurity or without a job.
This creates big contrasts among different
neighbourhoods.

Environmental matters are increasing: atmospheric,
acoustic, water and soil pollution are bigger. In addition to
this, the development of cities has resulted in other
impacts such as motorways, railroads, airports, and
channels or garbage dumps that have altered the
landscape. To solve this last problem it is needed to plan
the re-use and recycling of garbage.

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Unit 11

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Unit 11